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Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Ferfal, I received your book and it has helped me learn a great deal on urban survival. The thing that keeps bothering are knowing
the skills for an economic collapse, especially since I live in the US.
I been read your posts, and from them, I keep hearing that you won't be
needing wilderness survival skills. What would you say, what skills would
be necessary in a city? I know awareness and self-defense is necessary;
I got a bit of awareness in me because I got robbed when I was coming
back from school. Since then, I've been looking over shoulder and
carry a knife with me wherever I go.

Sincerely,Jesus

Hello Jesus,

I did cover some of these in my book, "The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse". As you notice, buidling a shelter in the jungle and making a cooking container with a length of bamboo are great skills but they tend to be less useful in an urban, modern world society where there are other challenges which arent precisley improvising cheap, widely available items.

Regarding Urban survival skills, I believe they have to be
actually useful. They have to improve your daily life, being needed on regular basis or
at least in likely emergency scenarios. Second, they should interconnect with one
another and have as much benefits as possible.

Fitness and Nutrition:
Staying healthy and fit has the obvious benefit of keeping you both aliv, healthy and
capable of physical activity. Staying the obvious are we? Well, take a look
around the fitness level during the next gun show or survival seminar. Fitness
can be combined with some group sport (making friends, networking) ,some
martial art (learning self-defense too, maybe meeting like-minded people) or
outdoors activities like camping and backpacking.

Business/Sales/Marketing: If
you are able to make money, you’re ahead of the game of urban survival. Sure,
it will do you no good if someone is trying to stab you to death one night when
commuting back from work, but making money is not just obviously needed to make
a living, it also allows you to position yourself better in life, live in
better/safer places buy supplies, pay for classes and move around with more
freedom if needed.When the economy goes
to hell, someone that knows how to keep making money has an invaluable
skillset. Good salesmen, guys that are good and keeping sales up are valuable
to any company. Any skill or profession that is in demand and gets you a steady
income, from welding(income+DIY combo skill points) to nurse school (income+medical combo skill
points) , can be the most important skill you could possibly have.

Finances & Budgeting:
Everything from handling your income, savings, investments and expenses. Making
the most of what you have is even more crucial when you have very little.

Second Language: It quickly
becomes added value to whatever profession you have and in many cases it places
you ahead of those that lack it, sealing the deal for many employers. Knowing a
second language that is popular in your country gives you an edge on the street
too.

Haggling & Negotiating:
Haggling isn’t just about buying trinkets from a street vendor in Cairo.
Haggling is the art of politely bringing the price up or down to your benefit.
When buying furniture, appliances or cars on the second hand market, when
talking about the price of a house or discussing a work contract or raise, the
skill put to use is the same and the more you practice it the better you get at
it. Being a good negotiator can save you hundreds of thousands in your
lifetime.

First aid: Know what to do
if someone is choking or having a heart attack. Take a first aid class, check
with the red cross website or nearby hospital to find one close to you. Once
you have the basics you can add to that more advanced knowledge. There’s
classes and information online on treating gun shot wounds, stab wounds and
such. As a parent you soon have a good idea of the illnesses your kids are
likely to catch and you prepare for them accordingly.

Security & Self Defense:
Armed o unarmed. Personal and home security. Security is about knowledge,
habits and acquired skills. Regarding armed self-defense, don’t assume you
already know how to use a handgun because your uncle’s neighbor that was in the
Army taught you how to shoot a few soda cans one Sunday afternoon. Take an
actual class from a good instructor. Try adding martial arts, some knowledge on
how to use a stick and blade.

Awareness: Awareness isn’t just
about keeping an eye on those around you. Its about keeping a constant yellow
level of alert. Listening (shouting? Quick footsteps towards you?) and smelling(gunpowder?
Smoke? Teargas?) your surroundings. Get used to identifying a second exit in
whatever room or structure you walk into. The first one if the one you gained
access through.

Understand the Grid: Have an
understanding of your area, your city. Where does water come from? Where does
it go? If it rains a lot, what parts get flooded and why? Is there an
underground river somewhere? Know where the power terminals and transformers
are in your neighborhood. Watch the city/power/sewer workers and try to understand
what they are doing, maybe even stop by and say thanks for their hard work and
ask about what they are working on. Know which are the main arteries in and out
of your city and which alternative routes you could take. What are the bad
parts of down to be avoided and where trouble usually brews during protests and
civil unrest. You probably know where the police station is, but what about the
patrol routes? Do you see a patrol car or officer on foot on certain streets,
certain days at a certain time? What about sewers? Where do they start and end.
Peek if you can when a worker goes down for repairs and try to learn in what direction
it stretches. Manhole covers are usually a good indication of that.

Backpacking: While
backpacking isn’t in itself training for urban survival, it does go along well
with fitness and an understanding of essential gear and techniques, things such
as cooking with basics, staying warm and hydrated and map reading and
navigation.

Defensive Driving: It’s not
just about avoiding carjacking and kidnappers (even if that can still happen to
you) but it’s also about learning to use your vehicle during emergencies
related to drunk drivers and road rage which are far too common.

DIY: A basic understanding
of how to fix and build things around the house can be very handy and it can save
you a good amount of money as well. Its safe to say that 1/3 of the appliances
I’ve managed to fix on my own had nothing more than a broken cable that needed
replacing or some other simple obvious malfunction that was quickly noticeable
after disassembling the appliance or machine. If I end up having to call an expert, I make
sure to stick around and ask plenty of questions so as to know how to do it on my
own next time.

Electronics/HAM Radio: With
basic understanding of electronics you can fix most gadgets. Radio
communication skills can be important during large scale disasters. Ham radio
is also a hobby that may allow you to meet like-minded people.

Improvising and Coping:
Improvising is closely linked to DIY, but it extends beyond that. Its about
improvising in life in general. Knowing that if there’s no water you can flush
a toilet with a bucket, that a few soda bottles full of ice and some plastic
tarp can turn your freezer into an old school “ice box” during blackouts. Its
about being “creative” with your cooking recipes if the budget doesn’t allow
for much. I just got used to turning leftovers into something else for another
meal, we still do that often. Stews are particularly good for that.

Then there’s coping, which I
believe a lot of people will have problems with. A couple days ago I was
reading in a survival forum a post someone made asking how to deal with lack of
supplies during an extended SHTF scenario. A lot of people had plenty of
suggestions. No one suggested what truly ends up happening: You learn to do
without. At the end of the day, most of the stuff people worry so much about is
not essential. Food, water, shelter and clothing. Pretty much everything else a
person can do without. If it comes down to that, those are the ones that keep
you alive. Other than medicines when needed, everything else falls into the “nice
to have” category in a pure survival situation.

These are just a few, if you
have other suggestions post them on the comments below!

11 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Great Post! In some areas we are doing well and others need to be tightened up. Thank you!

It has been my observation, that many survival lists put sewing and knitting/crochet as an after thought. You were very correct in mentioning clothing. Not having the appropriate clothing for the weather, or not having the proper footwear, could be tragic.

Purchasing extra sensible footwear would be prudent.

Knowing how to repair clothes and household linens is essential. This skill has been lost on our increasingly de-skilled society. The British government during WW2 thought it essential, and distributed a number of pamphlets that that gave step by step instruction the proper method of mending clothes and household linens.

Being able to make and mend that includes the examples you mentioned, not only saves money, but helps with coping. Once the person has climbed the learning curve of a new skill, the skill can have positive side benefits. It will give great satisfaction of a job well done, decrease stress,and may improve the quality of our life and health.

Gun ownership. Even in countries where restricted i would have a discreet house gun. I think that ferfal will disagree, but training in gun use can be accomplished in an afternoon. I also think it prudent to a % of savings in physical gold.

BRILLIANT post as usual, Ferfal. I also LOVED your post about the BBC series and book "Wartime Farm". If you have not already, start growing a bit of fresh veggies. Start with the easy stuff in a SMALL area, and go from there. No area to grow stuff? Master the 'art' of growing sprouts. They are a great source of vitamins and will keep you healthy when other fresh veggies are not available.

Keep up the GREAT work Ferfal, and thanks for the 'food' for thought. :-)

This is a big subject. I'll make a few suggestions just as a start:1) Re local knowledge for an urban area, I would add the following forthe USA:

a) Local Hazards: Railroads (may carry nuclear fuel or Hazmat materials), chemical refineries (poisonous gases -- check online for the "Wind Rose" for your area --shows directions where winds blow from at different times of the year), also upwind nuclear powerplants. I live in a quiet suburb that at first glance is quite safe. But i was surprised to discover several years ago that an obscurerailroad track --located about half a mile away along a river -- was carryingnuclear materials at night from a nuclear reactor in another state about 50 milesto the south.

b) Location of local food warehouses (where food is trucked to local supermarkets)

c) Local government emergency plans (evacuation routes, assembly points (usually school houses near major intersections), plans to house refugees in YOUR home,etc.

d) Location of local hospitals (in normal times, we call 911 and wait for paramedics/ambulance. In chaos, they are tied up elsewhere and if your friend has a gunshot wound in her stomach, there is little time to look up addresses in a phone book and find them on a map. Even Assuming you can find the map, that is. You might also note the name, address and phone number of a local paramedic. Put emergency info in a known place/drawer.

2) Know the local power structure -- who the rich are, who the major lawyers are (check the reference Martindall and Hubbells--the Consumer Guide to Law Firms), and the allegiances of the local politicans. To appeal to a power figure for help, you don't need to be his friend -- you just need to be a friend of one of his relativesor friends. Certainly it is better than being a complete stranger.

3) Know how your city earns its money -- a lot of local companies are selling to local consumers but there always has to be some conduit for money to come in from outside. That conduit is important because every dollar coming down it gets magnified 4 or 5 times as it is passed around. But if the dollars coming in stop, the crowbar works the other way -- laid off employees stop buying and local businesses who sell to them start hurting.

4) Know how your employer earns its money and the trend in its current fortunes. Check the stock price trend for the past two years. Is it healthy? Is your employer about to be destroyed by a competitor? From an investors' viewpoint, is it a good business?Are layoffs likely in the coming year?

5) In a number of US urban areas, you can go online, find the website for your localcounty/city government and register to have your cell phone receive alerts from the local emergency center. (You can also arrange to receive alerts of major emergenciesoccurring in New York City or Washington DC by registering with their emergency centers.)

6) Buy a Radio Shack Public Alert handheld weather radio (with SAME). It will turn itself onautomatically, sound a loud alarm and broadcast an emergency warning received for thelocal area (the SAME codes for which you can program). Be sure to get the power adapterso you can have it monitoring continuously at home. A good feature is that you can take itwith you if you need to travel downtown or evacuate.

7) Buy a small AM/FM radio w/ spare batteries and charger as well. During the Cold War,there were about 35 special, high power radio stations (Primary Entry Points) set up around the USA that were designed to survive a major nuclear attack and carry government directives/information in the aftermath.They have their own backup diesel generators and large fuel tanks as well as hardenedbuildings in survivable locations. They are not obsolete -- the US government in fact is adding more of them.If nothing else is transmitting, they will be and their range is out to 200 miles or more.Know the frequency of the closest PEP -- although other radio stations are supposed to also pick up and rebroadcast its transmissions.

8) A smartphone connected to the Internet will let you pull up Google Maps,which has two useful features:

a) If you zoom to a road map of your local area and click on the "Traffic" menuoption, the map will show which roads are clear, which are slow moving, andwhich are badly jammed.

b) The "Directions" option lets your specify a start and destination address andwill then display the route on the map with detailed directions. You can click on the initial route and drag part of it to an alternate road (to bypass traffic jams) andGoogle will then display the new route and update the directions.

9) The old AT&T/Bell copper based land lines were designed to be extremely robust and were a good backup to a cell phone. I don't know how robust thenew digital fiber optic telephone lines are. Many of the old public pay phones have largely disappeared so it would be worthwhile to find the locations of onesstill in operation in your area. (Especially since NSA can't tie them to you, heh heh.)

PS I forgot to mention --the reason why you want to track the health of your local economy is to get out ahead of any severe drop in housing prices.

For example, housing prices in the Washington DC suburbs increased rapidly during the Reagan defense spending boom of the 1980s --but then fell about 25-30% from their highs when major defense spending cuts were imposed after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

I knew a middle-aged guy whose house was underwater -- i.e., worth $50,000 less than what he owed on it -- and he had to come up with the shortage out of his personal savings in order to move to a better job. (Not only does personal bankruptcy carry a financial stigma, but it would also have ruined his career since he would have lost the security clearance necessary for his work.)

I was very happy to see DIY on the list. Few things have saved me more money than the ability to repair my own car. The knowledge is easily acquired, too. I've learned how to repair and replace practically everything on my own vehicle through Chiltons manuals, car forums, and Youtube. This, coupled with about $200 in hand tools that have easily paid for themselves 15 or 20 times over, and I have a skill that sends everyone I know running to me whenever they have car trouble.

You can also learn a great deal of patience from working on things, and you learn that things very rarely ever go the way you planned, which forces you to carefully think through the problem, do your research, and become a keen improviser. Business as usual or end of the world, you can't go wrong with learning to fix things yourself.

1) Re trying to evacuate from a city, if you don't have a helicopter handy then consider the River. Almost every city has a large river running through it --to supply water. A boat on the river allows a quick getaway while avoiding the hordes. A power boat is obviously best but even a canoe will let you cover 15 miles or so at night if you head downstream and get a speed boost from the current.

2) Re my earlier suggestions about various radios, look also at FRS radios to hooking up with family or friends.

3) And get automobile chargers for all the radios plus one for AA/AAA batteries. I referring to the kind that you plug into the cigarette lighter and which draws current off the automobile main battery. Use the chargers when the car is running and the main battery is being recharged by the alternator/fan belt.

One DIY suggestion is having a simple barrel for a cistern to collect water. Another suggestion which is both good for city folk and people in the country is long term food storage which can include pickling and fermenting various types of food.

Financial: open a bank account in a friendly foreign country and put some money there. Possibly start a small business on behalf of it. Learn to transfer money quickly, via internet. Way more difficult for your own government to steal your assets.

Physical: take vacations in another country (you like vacations do you?). Consider a simple trailer in a remote campground. Easy, fun and cheap. Should you have to go, you know where, and people there know you.Reconcile with a cousin far away. Bring him a nice present today and once a year, or even better help him or his son. Exchange a deal: if the SHTF in one place, the other place is a safe harbor.

Information: learn to select the news, hot alerts or slow changes. What was true yesterday may not be anymore. The beacon of Liberty tends to move to other places, be aware and ready to reconsider your thoughts.

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Leatherman Charge Ti

Fenix Lights

I love this light. Runs on a single AAA and is capable of big boy lumen output (80 lumens) in a keychain package. Also has low and mid mode for longer runtime.
Fenix PD20
Single CR123 cell. 6 modes including 180 lumen turbo mode.
General Mode: 9 lumens (35hrs) -> 47 lumens (6.5hrs) -> 94 lumens (2.6hrs) -> SOS
Turbo Mode: 180 lumens (1hrs) -> Strobe
15 days of survival use (2 continuous hours per day on the lowest setting)

Thanks for the Positive Reviews!

Energency gadget... on steroids.

Asus Eee 1005HA

Basic Door/Window Alarm

Emergency gadget

Both tool and weapon, just the right size

Straight edge makes it easier to sharpen, + tougher tip

Gorilla Tape

By all accounts and reviews I’ve read so far, it truly is “The toughest Tape on the Planet”

Transportation

I talked about these some time ago in an article, remember someone asked where to get one.
"Alternative Transportation"
Just found one reasonably priced and with excellent reviews in Amazon.

Best Folder

Emergency blankets. I Have several of these around.

Katadyn water filter

for the kits

and food ...

Got to have water: Klean Kanteen Stainless Steel

Moleskine, the ultimate little black cover notebook :)

Fenix L0D-CE. Perfect keychain light. 80 Lumens in a single AAA

Nice combo. The Soldier is an excellent product.

Sabre Red OC spray

Made in USA
This is the brand I use and always have one in my bag and car. ( same brand used by NYPD)
My wife keeps one in her purse too.
Sabre Red Tear Gas
Sabre Red for ladies
You guys have the coolest stuff up there.:)

Jack Bauer’s bag.:) I’d like to get one of these and try it out.

Fox OC Spray

Don’t have this one but it’s the hottest OC spray out there.
Someone once called it “bottled lava”
Pick your poison people, but do carry OC
1) Even if you carry a gun
2) SPECIALLY if you don’t carry a gun

Firesteel

Classic, and one of the few things I’d call a “must have” I own two of these.